Because Islam forbids sex before marriage, sexual education in the orthodox Muslim community has long been a fraught proposition.
But, by flipping the formula on its head with an abstinence-based approach implemented in a Newark mosque, an interfaith team of Rutgers graduates have made inroads on an HIV prevention initiative for Muslim adolescents.
“They needed a culturally competent type of curriculum that’s going to be in line with their beliefs and their values,” co-author Dr. Shaakira Abdullah, Professor of Nursing at Widener University, told NJ Advance Media.
The researchers, who started work on the project as Doctor of Nursing Practice students at Rutgers in 2016, published their findings in a paper, “Sex Education in the Mosque” in the November/December issue of the Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care. By foregrounding religion, they reported an increase in their subjects' knowledge of STIs and HIV.
Participants were recruited from mosques in Newark, East Orange and Elizabeth for a weekend-long program at Nia Masjid & Community Center in Newark. Over the course of a Saturday and Sunday, facilitators taught eight modules on topics like HIV prevention, increasing comfort around sex and providing strategies for fighting sexual urges.
For example, in the secular curriculum that the researchers modified, it originally encouraged adolescents to engage in physical acts like kissing instead of sex. Because those physical acts are also forbidden in Islam, the adapted curriculum taught adolescents to fast or exercise, ways to curb sexual urges in accordance with the Qaran.
“There was no toolbox before this,” co-author Dr. Radhika Patel told NJ Advance Media. “It was just, ‘don’t do it…’ This is giving them some tools that they can actually use to implement that.”
The program came with buy-in from imams at the participating mosques and with consent from parents. But the team did notice a mixed reception from parents, who thought the program might teach sexual positions or techniques to their children. One parent even crossed out the word “sex” on flyers, underscoring how challenging it can be to broach these subjects and the lack of religiously appropriate sexual education.
And while some may flinch at the thought of an abstinence-based approach, thinking it archaic or unproductive, the researchers said their intervention hinged on a key difference.
“Faith-based interventions have a history of being done in a lot of Christian communities and they have been effective for those Christian youth who have those values and beliefs,” Abdullah said. “They ran into problems when they would try to do faith-based interventions for youth who are not necessarily faithful, who are not religious, and trying to push on this shame-based and fear-based sex education curriculum that wasn’t effective.”
She added: “If you’re going to do a faith-based intervention it should be focused on those youth who want to do this. So, it’s not for everyone… youth who are in this program actually want to delay sex until marriage.”
Unlike abstinence-only curriculums widespread in America, which are proven to be highly ineffective, the “Sex Ed in the Mosque” team cast no shame or fear around sex, focusing instead on empowerment and participants' identities.
“The goal… is not to just completely be abstinent forever,” Abdullah said. “The goal is to be their best self and prepare for marriage. They will ultimately have sex, because in Islam, sex is not looked at this dirty or forbidden thing, it’s looked it as a gift from God, that should be used within marriage.”
In a test administered after the trial weekend, participants' knowledge around STIs, HIV and pregnancy markedly improved, as did positive attitudes around sex and intentions to abstain from sex before marriage.
Abdullah plans to apply the findings and build other curriculums for mosques with her non-profit organization, Love Beyond Love, focused on providing support to Muslim youth around topics of premarital sex and relationships. She is currently working toward a PhD in Sex Education.
Though Abdullah is Muslim, co-authors, Patel and Dr. Prudence Arthur are not, with all three pointing to the efficacy of a faith-based interventions to teach about risky sexual behaviors.
“That was actually my favorite part of the whole project… Prudence being Christian, Shaakira being Muslim and me being Hindu, and all of us being pretty religious in our faiths, were able to come together and do this…” Patel said. “At the end of the day, it all was so similar, it wasn’t like we were all super different and came from totally different places. It just reiterated how similar we all were.”
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Josh Axelrod may be reached at jaxelrod@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
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